hermosahoops

Thanks Dressa. The beach dance party was great. Way better then I had hoped for and perfect for our group.

Post Dinner Dance Party After dinner we took our ipod player and our case of Bohemia down to the beach and had a little dance party. We did our first dance, father/daughter dance, and fun dancing down by the ocean. People could sit and chat on the loungers if they weren’t up for dancing, and we went over by a light so the area was lit nicely. Unfortunately, everyone in our group had been affected at some point with an intestinal bug so people were pretty subdued. People still had fun though, and once the parents headed to bed a handful of us went to the disco and danced until closing. The rest of the trip I am so glad we stayed at the resort after the wedding. We had one more day with everyone and then 3 days by ourselves. It was nice to be able to really relax and not have wedding things to do. We went to the Dominican Restaurant that is on the far side of the resort, down on the beach. I don’t think people generally get to it, but it was my favorite restaurant at the resort. I have a funny thing about treehouses and when I saw the platform table, I asked if we could eat up there. The girl didn’t bat an eye and seated us right away. My tip, request this spot; you face the ocean so it feels super private and it is only candlelit up there. Plus the food at the restaurant was great. If you are interested in more photos, feel free to check out some more of the HDC pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/WorsfoldWedding/ForFacebook?authkey=Gv1sRgCParzqKHyqbIaw# Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions! Rikki

Cocktail Party After the ceremony, hubby and I took pictures with Francisco and everyone else went to the pier for the cocktail party. The spot was really good for us as it was pretty contained. We hung out there and had drinks and hor d'oeuvres for about an hour, hour and a half. Yanna was in and out during the party and was around if we needed anything. My hubby put in a request for a case of Bohemia for after dinner and she had it brought out to us with the stipulation we bring back all the empty bottles. We had the three hot appetizer options but no one really ate the food except for me. I was staaaaarving after the whole big day and everyone else was more focused on the drinks. Reception Dinner We had our reception dinner in the wine cellar between the Italian restaurant and the French restaurant. I worked this all out with Yanna before the wedding. She made sure it was available and set up. This spot was PERFECT for us as it was private, but since the walls are glass, we still felt like there were other people around. We brought our ipod player in there and had soft music in the background. Some of the great things about the room were that we could be as loud as we wanted without disturbing the other patrons, we could do toasts and everyone could hear and we could order from both restaurants, so everyone found something they enjoyed. They did a beautiful job decorating the room with table runners and flowers. They also brought me a vase so I could use my bouquet as a centerpiece. I would HIGHLY recommend this to anyone with a wedding party 12 and less. They couldn’t have fit any more people in there, but 12 was fine. Plus, since we were only 12 we didn’t have to pay any extra to have our dinner in there. It was included in the “all inclusive†price. You should think about this as a dining place in general. What I found about the restaurants at the resort; all you have to do is ask. The fancy/private looking dining spots are all available, but you have to ask about them specifically.

Ceremony The wedding got off to a bit of a late start. Yanna came and grabbed me at my parents suite at 4ish and we made our way to the gazebo. I guess they couldn’t get the sound system to work so Hubby had to run up to the room and grab our personal ipod docking station. We had Elke do the ceremony and she did an excellent job. She looked nice, spoke clearly and read what I’d written for her, but didn’t just stare at the paper. They brought our cake to the ceremony, which I thought was kind of funny. We didn’t eat it until later that night, so it followed us around for a while. We didn’t have any decorations in the gazebo, but they did bring some flowers for the table in the middle. They also put the turquoise chair sashes on the chairs free of charge. Those were provided by Dreams. They also had a side table set up with the champagne and the cake.

HDC We worked with Francisco of HDC Photography. He was great; super professional and right on time. He accommodated our request for more candid pictures rather than the formal poses. Arnaud got the disc to us a few days later and we were able to pick our prints. The first time was a bit of a mishap; he gave us someone else’s wedding! Not to worry, he dropped the right dvd off the next day.

The Wedding Day!! Spa Due to the increased rainfall from Hurricane Thomas, we elected to have our ceremony at 3:30 instead of 4. My mom, sister and I started our hair appointments at 11:30 and we wrapped up around 2. I didn’t have the hair trial, but I didn’t have to worry as I loved what she did with my hair. It wasn’t anything like I tried to describe, but it still looked really pretty. Just know, if you bring a picture or indicate you like something from their books, they’ll make your hair look EXACTLY like that. I wasn’t able to say “the front like this, but the back like this†etc.

Yanna I know people get a bit aggravated with the wedding coordinators at the resort, but they have so much going on, I can’t say I blame them for taking a week+ to get back to someone whose wedding is 8 months away. They oftentimes have multiple weddings going on in one day, so they aren’t near the office much. Even with all the weddings every day, Yanna still did an amazing job making our wedding feel special. I felt she really went above and beyond to make my requests come true. She set up a rehearsal dinner for us at Oceana the night before the wedding and had them hold a table for us in the back. She also had them decorate it with our wedding colors and place flowers on the table. I would definitely recommend Oceana as a reception site over the SSG deck. The restaurant is nice, open and right by the beach. It isn’t air conditioned, but there are a ton of ceiling fans so the air moves around well. I also think it is more private then the SSG as there aren’t any other restaurants right there.

It has been a month since the wedding so I figure I should probably post my review already! I couldn’t have had such a great wedding without all the support and encouragement from the wonderful people on this forum, and I cannot thank you enough! The Resort In a word; wow. Dreams La Romana is amazing. The entire facility is gorgeous. From the winding paths through the grounds, to the pink flamingos by the restaurants, it was like being in a movie. All of our guests were so impressed by the level of cleanliness and the attention to detail applied to everything. The employees were incredibly nice and friendly and spoke fantastic English. With such a high guest turnover, I don’t know how they manage to make each person feel special and memorable, but somehow they do! We had 10 guests for our wedding. My husband and I were upgraded to the Preferred Club and placed in building 7. Everyone else was placed in building 5, except for my parents who upgraded to a suite and were in building 2. All three of these buildings were the newer style and were very nice. A few guests had complaints about their rooms; two double beds instead of a king, funky smell, etc. I called down to the front desk and they were promptly moved to other rooms. I don’t know if I would have paid the extra money for the Preferred Club, but I am SO glad we were upgraded. It was noticeable quieter on that side of the resort, and the preferred pool was a lovely place to relax without the sounds of the rest of the resort reaching you. Plus it was nice to be able to pop into the club for a drink, snack, or to speak with the concierge in there, where there was generally no line.

Love the review Nancy! You looked beautiful. Your beach pictures are lovely; we didn't make it to the beach until it was dark. :S Dcairns: Don't worry about anything. DLR is amazing and everything will be great. I've been writing my review on my home computer in quick snatches of time the last few nights. I hope to have it up by this weekend! Sorry it has taken so long!

Hello! The wedding is over, and it is time to clear wedding central, as my husband calls it, out of our living room. The items I have do not include shipping. I can accept payment through paypal; if you PM me I'll let you know the final cost and where to send the money. Everything I have is unused except where noted. Let me know if you have any questions!! 3 Pink Pashminas - $12 total ($4 each) 6 oz. Off Deep Woods - $5 100 Ezy Dose Pill Pouches - $4 (I used these in my OOT Bag First Aid kits. I was able to give the guests Imodium, Advil, etc. and they didn't take up barely any space.) 38 Clear, Waterproof Badge Holders + 3 Blue Lanyards - $10 (I LOVED having these at the wedding. Everyone wore them around to carry their tip money and room keys. I could easily keep my cash and key in there with no problem.) 80 Earplug Pairs in Individual Packages - $12 (Our guests really appreciated these in their OOT Bags. The hotel was beautiful, but the walls could definitely have been thicker! The earplugs made sleeping much easier.) 8 Raffia Fans - $6 (7 of them are wrapped with purple ribbon and 1 is wrapped with turquoise. I used Glue Dots from Micheal's so it would be pretty easy to get the ribbon off if you didn't want to use them as they are. The sizes vary so I have a picture of the smallest and largest fans next to a credit card, since I figure everyone knows how big that is!) Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions!

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We didn't have an actual rehearsal, but my in-laws still wanted to "host" a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding. It was kind of moot because we had group dinners every night we were all there, but it was still fun. I had emailed with Yanna previously about possibly doing a private beach dinner, but when we got to the resort we decided we would just eat in one of the restaurants. Yanna said to tell her which one we wanted and that she'd get a table set up for us. We We didn't pay extra for this, and we had to show up right as the restaurant was opening, but it was still really fun. They put the chair sashes on the chairs and had a table runner down the middle. It wasn't a private dinner or anything, but we were in the back of Oceana, not in the middle of the room or anything.

Hi ladies, Sorry i haven't put up a review yet. I've been super busy at work since I got back and am way too tired at night to write anything. I'll take a few minutes though to answer some questions I've seen so far. 1. My flowers were included in my package. There was a bit of language issues when picking out the bouquets, but I am super pleased with how they turned out. Yanna showed me a folder of a few different examples and asked me what color I wanted my flowers. I told her "colorful and tropical" and she said, "What color? We'll paint them any color you want.". I said "No, don't paint them, whatever you have is fine." "Blue flowers? You want Blue flowers! Ok, we'll paint them." "No..." We went back and forth on the painting for a while, but I kept saying "Natural but colorful". I think a few in there were painted, but I couldn't tell even when i closely inspected them. They were beautiful up close. 2. The chair sashes were provided by dreams. I'm not fussy about everything matching, but our general wedding colors were purple and turquoise. She said she had something close to turquoise and they worked out great. She even had them on the chairs for our rehearsal dinner at Oceana, which I thought was really sweet. We worked with HDC photos and we had to pay for a day pass for the photographer, but a couple of our guests are amateur photographers as well. They had big professional looking cameras and no one said anything to them whatsoever. I'm sure you'll be fine bringing in your own photographer.

Hi ladies! Thank you again for all the wonderful thoughts, wishes and comments. Things could not have worked out better and I'll be putting up a review soon, I promise! Yanna was wonderful, the weather was great and everyone said they had a great time. I even met the lovely Nancy a few days after the wedding and she was awesome. If you have any questions or concerns please ask away and I'll try to answer the best I can. I had a small wedding though, so I might not have the answer on private receptions and so forth. In the meantime, here are some pictures from HDC. I had Francisco and he did a great job. Lots of love, Rikki